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Initiative aimed at 'Making Water Sensitive Cities in Ganga Basin' launched by Namami Gange

With an aim to improve river's health and flow, a new capacity-building initiative on 'Making Water Sensitive Cities in Ganga Basin' wa-> View it--> https://www.newkerala.com/news/2021/106071.htm National Mission for Clean Ganga in collaboration with research organization launch initiative on 'Making Water Sensitive Cities in Ganga Basin' The key focus areas of the programme will be Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning, Urban Water Ef-> View it--> https://www.newkerala.com/news/2021/106071.htm

30 years of economic reforms and environmental degradation

Faced with a severe Balance of Payment crisis in 1991, the Indian government embarked on an economic reform programme favouring decentralisation, de-bureaucratisation and globalisation. What began as a response to an economic crisis has led to an unprecedented environmental crisis that is set to reverse the little gains made in the last three decades. The prime objectives of the new industrial policy were to introduce liberalisation measures to integrate the Indian economy with the world economy, abolish restrictions on direct foreign investment, liberate indigenous enterprise and achieve international competitiveness. The past 30 years can be largely summed up as a story of spectacular economic performance and rapid environmental degradation. While India may have moved from a low-income country to a middle-income one, its growth has not been ‘inclusive’. A large number of poor, marginalised and vulnerable sections of the society have been left out of the growth process. While India may well be on the path to eradicating extreme poverty, it still lags behind in other important development indicators, especially regarding health and education. The reforms were largely in the formal sector of the economy, the agriculture and forest dependent communities did not see any reforms leading to uneven growth and unequal distribution. In his 1991 budget speech, Finance Minister Manmohan Singh made an emphatic declaration: “We cannot deforest our way to prosperity, and we cannot pollute our way to prosperity.” These were prophetic words. Three decades later, forests nearly two-thirds the size of Haryana have been lost to encroachments (15,000 sq km) and 23,716 industrial projects (14,000 sq km), according to government data. Artificial forests cannot compensate the loss of biodiversity, as the government recently acknowledged. The increase in air and water pollution is mainly from iron, steel, cement, coal, petroleum, fertilisers, synthetic resins, plastic, artificial fibres and chemical industries — all which benefitted from the reforms. Trade liberalisation in India systematically removed trade barriers and restrictions on foreign direct investments (FDI). As developed countries started cleaning up their environmental Act, not surprisingly most of the post-1991 FDI investments to India were higher in dirty technologies and polluting industries. According to State of Environment Report, 2021, by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), of 88 major industrial clusters in India, 35 showed overall environmental degradation, 33 pointed to worsening air quality, 45 had more polluted water, and in 17 land pollution became worse. The major greenhouse gases (GHG) added to the environment as a result of increased industrial activities include carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrogen oxide (NOx), nitrous monoxide (N2O) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). In a report published by Climate Watch (2018), India ranked among the world’s top-five contributors to GHG. India’s automobile industry boomed after economic liberalisation, with a host of collaborations between Indian companies and leading car manufacturers worldwide. Along with this boom there has been an increase in the levels of air pollution. Twenty-one of the world’s 30 cities with the worst air pollution are in India. Air pollution in India has caused losses of up to Rs 7 lakh-crore ($95 billion) annually, according to Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In India, environmental statutes, though impressive in range and coverage, are more often observed in breach than practice. Corruption, jurisdictional conflicts and lack of co-ordination among different agencies has resulted in poor enforcement. India was ranked 168th out of 180 countries in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), according to researchers at Yale and Columbia universities. Interestingly, it is the courts, especially the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal that played a pivotal role in addressing the environmental crisis unleashed by economic reforms. The orders and directions of the apex court cover a wide range of areas, whether it be air, water, solid waste or hazardous waste. But none of it is enough to address the greatest threat to India’s economy – climate change. The World Economic Forum’s 2020 report on global risks indicates that biodiversity and climate-related risks are now widely acknowledged to be the risks with the highest likelihood and impact. India can no longer afford to have an isolated climate policy, or one that places business interests over environmental concerns — as the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2020 proposes. Countries around the world are debating their versions of the green new deal. India must break from carbon-centric Keynesian economics and adapt to the 21st-century vision for carbon neutrality: Investments in its rural communities for forest restoration coupled with agroforestry, sustainable fisheries and horticulture, organic and low-carbon agriculture, green jobs through renewable energy, and energy-efficient green infrastructure. It remains to be seen whether it is the government or the judiciary that acknowledge that in essence, ecology is economy. Apart from the business case, moving to an integrated ecology-economy approach is a matter of survival in an increasingly uncertain future. Source: Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA)

US says FSSAI’s non-GMO certification requirement has hit its apple exports

In submission to WTO, India urged to withdraw measure, consider ‘non-discriminatory’ approaches The US has said that its apple exports to India have been disrupted due to New Delhi’s decision to mandate ‘non-GM (genetically modified) origin’ and ‘GM-free’ certificates for certain agricultural imports and has proposed that the measure be withdrawn. “The measure (GM-free certificate requirement) has disrupted US apple exports. Trade stoppages risk future product shortages and could lead to price increase for Indian consumers and further disruptions to Indian supply chain,” the US said in a recent representation to the Sanitary & Phytosanitary Committee of the WTO. subscribers exclusiveSubscriber Exclusive alt_text technical-analysis Nifty Call: Sell on rallies with a fixed stop-loss at 15,760 alt_text news-analysis Banking stress Retail stress tells on private banks in Q1 alt_text data-focus Has the National Health Mission been effective enough? alt_text news-analysis Analysis Export realisations, value-added products drive Q1 earnings of JSW Steel Last August, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) published an order specifying that every consignment of 24 identified food products need to be accompanied by a non-GM-origin-cum-GM-free certificate issued by Competent National Authority of the exporting country. Food items The order was to be effective from January 1, 2021, but was postponed to March 1. The food items requiring the certification include pineapples, apples, wheat, rice, tomato, potato, maize, melon, plum, papaya, potato, egg plant, bean, among others. Following the imposition of the non-GMO certification requirement from March 1 2021, apple exporters from the US have reportedly complained that the Indian market is technically closed for them as at present, the US Department of Agriculture does not issue such certificates. “Apple exports from the US to India had already taken a hit following imposition of additional import duties of 20 per cent in 2019, as retaliation for US action against Indian steel & aluminium. This increased total import duties on the fruit to 70 per cent. There has been a sharp drop in apple exports from the US to India over the last couple of years and shipments are expected to fall further this year because of the GM-free mandatory certification,” a person tracking the industry told BusinessLine. Fall in imports Import of fresh apples from the US to India dropped 32.91 per cent in 2020-21 to $34.60 million from $51.58 million in 2019-20. The US, in its submission to the SPS Committee this month, reiterated that India must provide the scientific justification and the risk assessment for the measure, or otherwise indicate the relevant international standards or guidelines on which this measure is based. “In the absence of this information, the US again urges India to withdraw its measure,” it said. The mandatory certificate requirement imposed by India follows a study carried out by research and advocacy body Centre for Science and Environment in 2018 which found that despite the FSSAI not allowing GM food in the country, several samples of edible oils, processed and packaged food and infant food items, produced locally and imported, were found to contain GM ingredients. While 32 per cent samples tested GM-positive, the bulk of it was imported. Washington suggested that India could consider alternative approaches that can be implemented in a non-discriminatory manner, and in a way that is not more trade-restrictive than necessary. In January 2021, the US had proposed technical cooperation with India to develop alternatives to the non-GM origin and GM-free certificate. “We look forward to the FSSAI response to this proposed technical cooperation opportunity as a means by which we can develop a mutually agreeable approach to this issue,” it said in its latest submission.

Path cleared for extension of Delhi’s Barapullah elevated corridor

The extension will provide signal free road access between east Delhi and south Delhi. Currently the Barapullah elevated corridor, known as the Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Setu, connects Sarai Kale Khan in south east Delhi to AIIMS in south Delhi. The Delhi government is in the final stages of acquiring an 8.5-acre land parcel in the Yamuna riverbed which will pave the way for the completion of the extension of the Barapullah elevated road corridor up to Mayur Vihar in east Delhi, senior government officials who are aware of the development said. The extension will provide signal free road access between east Delhi and south Delhi. Currently the Barapullah elevated corridor, known as the Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Setu, connects Sarai Kale Khan in south east Delhi to AIIMS in south Delhi. The road corridor was developed for ferrying athletes during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The officials said this is the first land acquisition case processed by the Delhi government under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013, said two senior Delhi government officials. Almost five years after the government initiated the process to acquire two land parcels for the 790m-long section (500m and 290m) of the elevated corridor between Mayur Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan, the revenue department notified the draft Rehabilitation and Resettlement scheme identifying the beneficiaries last month. The land parcels belong to residents of Nangli Razapur village, located near Sarai Kale Khan ISBT. Villagers say that they have been waiting for compensation for the past five years. Rajbir Tanwar, a resident, said, “We have held several meetings with government officials in the past five years. But till date there is no clarity on when we will get the compensation amount.” A senior south east Delhi district official said, “This is the first case processed under the RFCTLARR Act, 2013, by the government. We recently held a public hearing on the matter and have sent the file for final approval. We have been informed that the PWD department has released part payment to the revenue department for the acquisition process.” Once the final approval is given, it will be sent to Delhi lieutenant governor for approval and declaration of the scheme. “We plan to notify the declaration by September. We will have to acquire the land within one year from the date of declaration,” said the official. Villagers said they want the government to confirm the compensation amount. Bhopal Singh Chauhan, a farmer and village Pradhan, said, “In the meeting, officials didn’t tell us about the compensation amount. Our demand is that the government should pay ₹3 crore per acre.” The compensation amount, the district official said, will be finalised at later stages. Delhi PWD officials said that the ₹1,260 crore-project, which is crucial for addressing traffic congestion on Vikas Marg and Delhi Noida Direct flyway, is more than 80% complete and the remaining work will be completed within one year from the day they get possession of the land. A senior Delhi PWD official said, “Just 18% of the work, mainly related to the two stretches which have to be constructed, on the elevated corridor is left. If we get the land by October this year, it should be complete by December 2022.” Ever since the RFCTLARR Act came into force in 2013, the Delhi government’s land and building department officials said that no land has been acquired till date. A senior official aware of the development said, “As this was the first to be processed, it took some time as we had to appoint a committee to do the Social Impact Assessment and follow all the provisions of the Act. We have 5-6 requests for land acquisition from DMRC and PWD. We are trying to expedite the process so that such delays don’t happen in the future.” Anuj Dayal, executive director corporate communication, DMRC, “Out of these, about 8.71 hectares of permanent land has already been received by us. Deliberations are in progress for the rest of the land requirement. We are not facing any major issue pertaining to land acquisition as yet for phase 4.” Infrastructure and urban planning experts say that the new land acquisition Act has made the process difficult. The DMRC has a direct purchase policy and even the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has provisions in its Act which makes land acquisition faster and easier. Experts say, there is a need to have a direct purchase policy for crucial infrastructure projects. Sarvagya Srivastava, former engineer-in-chief of Delhi PWD, under whose tenure the Barapullah Phase-III project was conceived, said, “There is a need to have a direct purchase policy so that crucial infrastructure projects don’t get delayed,” said Srivastava. He added, “It is due to bureaucratic inefficiency and indifference that such an important project has been stuck, which may lead to cost escalation and inconvenience to the public.” A Delhi government spokesperson did not comment on the matter. The DMRC has a procedure in place to ensure transparency in the acquisition process. Dayal said, “Only in exceptional circumstances, to avoid any delay in the completion of the projects, we enter into direct negotiation with private parties. In Phase 3, the DMRC acquired bare minimum land from private parties through direct negotiation.” The Delhi Development Authority’s Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II) project, which is also referred to as the third ring road, is another case in point. The 79km-long corridor, which will connect four national Highways (NH 1, 2, 8 and 10), was approved by the UTTIPEC, the apex body for approval of traffic and transportation projects in Delhi, in 2016. But the DDA couldn’t start the work due to which it was transferred to the NHAI in 2018 to expedite the process. Sabyasachi Das, former planning commissioner (incharge) at DDA, said, “One of the reasons for the UER-II project being transferred to NHAI was land acquisition on the new approved alignment. NHAI and DMRC both have provisions to expedite the land acquisition process.” Nivit Kumar Yadav, director Industrial pollution unit, at the Centre for Science and Environment, said the Act of 2013 is aimed at protecting the interest of farmers who are directly or indirectly dependent on their land. “The acquisition process is time consuming. It provides for several opportunities to the government to discuss and negotiate with the local community whose land is being acquired. Moreover, to acquire land for crucial infrastructure projects the state government should come up with schemes or policies. Several states such as Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand etc have come up with alternative solutions to acquire land. Land pooling is one such solution which has been used in Andhra Pradesh’s Amravati,” said Yadav, who also looks after the environment impact assessment and land acquisition related matters.

For the first time, entire bus fleet operated by DTC declared ‘overage’

This age of the DTC buses has also started reflecting on its operational statistics. In 2015-16, the DTC used to operate 33,497 trips every day, which has now come down to about 30,000 trips on an average per day. The entire fleet of 3,760 buses run by Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has been officially declared “overage” this year, a first in the history of the state transport utility, which was set up in 1971, according to data accessed and analysed by HT. The data also showed that 99% of the fleet has crossed the technical operational limit for low-floor CNG buses. The DTC categorises a bus as “overage” after a run of more than eight years. As per the procurement contracts under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the maximum operational life of a low-floor CNG bus is 12 years or 750,000km, whichever is later. Of the total 3,760 buses, none of them is even as young as 6-8 years. At least 32 of the buses are 8-10 years old, 3,072 are between 10 and 12 years old, and 656 are older than 12 years. The number is alarming considering that the city needs 11,000 buses, according to a government affidavit submitted to the high court in 2018, and that the DTC itself is mandated to have 5,500 buses. Even if the 2,990 cluster buses, which are run by private operators, are included, Delhi’s current state run buses strength goes up to 6,750 only. Delhi transport minister and chairperson of DTC Kailash Gahlot said the issue has been extensively discussed in recent board meetings of the corporation. “Yes, it is true, and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has also expressed concern as our state-run buses are the lifeline of Delhi’s public transport. Our DTC and cluster buses together carry at least one million passengers more than the Delhi Metro every day. So, we planned a revival of the DTC by pumping in 1,300 new buses in the next seven months,” he said. It has been difficult for the DTC to get a successful tender for procurement of buses. Records seen by HT showed that the last time DTC finalised a tender was in 2008, and buses from that tender kept coming in small batches till October, 2011. After that, the DTC floated five tenders between 2013 and 2019, but none of them could be executed either due to unreasonable comprehensive annual maintenance contract (CAMC) or due to lack of enough bidders. It was finally in 2020 that a tender for 1,000 AC low-floor CNG buses was finalised with two bidders getting the contract in 70:30 ratio. However, allegations of irregularities in CAMC has indefinitely delayed the acquisition of 1,000 AC low-floor CNG buses. A probe committee appointed by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal has given a clean chit to the DTC over the tendering and procurement of the buses. The three-member panel, however, recommended floating fresh tenders for its AMC over what it described as “procedural lapses” arising out of a “bona fide decision-making process”. Gahlot said, “The DTC and I personally worked for months to make this tender successful. This was the DTC’s biggest achievement in 12 years as all earlier bus tenders kept failing...We hope that of the 1,300 buses, at least 300 electric buses for which the work order was issued in March this year, is not obstructed. People need more buses and this has been reiterated not just by the Delhi government but also the Supreme Court and high court.” Once the buses attain their shelf life, they are ideally supposed to be scrapped. However, records showed that because new buses are not being added, DTC has been forced to operate all such buses. No buses have been sent to the scrapyard in the current financial year, and only two buses were scrapped in 2020-21. In 2019-20, 80 buses were withdrawn from operations owing to age-related maintenance problems. Between 2011 and 2017, 368 buses were scrapped on an average annually with 2,209 vehicles being withdrawn during this period. But running old buses is pushing up maintenance costs. Vijay Bidhuri, managing director, DTC, said the situation has been so precarious that the corporation urged the state transport authority (STA) to allow its buses to ply till the age of 15 years. “There was no other way but to run them beyond their prescribed age. Fortunately, the STA has now allowed us to operate DTC buses till they attain 15 years. But, this is only a stop-gap arrangement. It has given us 2-3 years maximum to replace our entire fleet. We need to add new buses to DTC’s fleet because our expenditure on maintaining these old buses is also increasing. Even as we are running overaged buses, we cannot compromise on safety and have to keep the buses in their best possible condition, which is an expensive affair,” he said. This age of the DTC buses has also started reflecting on its operational statistics. In 2015-16, the DTC used to operate 33,497 trips every day, which has now come down to about 30,000 trips on an average per day. Annual internal audits by the DTC have also shown that an overaged fleet was a key factor in low productivity. Besides, the number of breakdowns have gone up because the entire fleet is composed of low-floor buses as mandated by the high court and Supreme Court to make public transport more accessible to the disabled. Low-floor buses have lower ground clearance, because of which they are more vulnerable to breakdowns, especially where roads are not in good shape or flooded stretches. Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE’s executive director and in-charge of research and advocacy, said because 100% of DTC’s fleet is “overaged”, the effective increment of Delhi’s bus fleet size has been very small. “Around 700 new buses have been added since 2019 in Delhi, but this is only under the cluster scheme. The DTC continues to operate with old buses, which effectively nullifies the increase in the city’s bus fleet because 56% of it constitutes DTC buses. Clearly, Delhi still needs a lot more buses to match the requirement of 11,000 buses as prescribed in the route rationalisation study by the Delhi government, and also to meet the growing demand,” she said.

30 years of economic reforms and environmental degradation

What began as a response to an economic crisis has led to an unprecedented environmental crisis that is set to reverse what little gains we made over the last three decades Faced with a severe Balance of Payment crisis in 1991, the Indian government embarked on an economic reform programme favouring decentralisation, de-bureaucratisation and globalisation. What began as a response to an economic crisis has led to an unprecedented environmental crisis that is set to reverse the little gains made in the last three decades. The prime objectives of the new industrial policy were to introduce liberalisation measures to integrate the Indian economy with the world economy, abolish restrictions on direct foreign investment, liberate indigenous enterprise and achieve international competitiveness. The past 30 years can be largely summed up as a story of spectacular economic performance and rapid environmental degradation. While India may have moved from a low-income country to a middle-income one, its growth has not been ‘inclusive’. A large number of poor, marginalised and vulnerable sections of the society have been left out of the growth process. While India may well be on the path to eradicating extreme poverty, it still lags behind in other important development indicators, especially regarding health and education. The reforms were largely in the formal sector of the economy, the agriculture and forest dependent communities did not see any reforms leading to uneven growth and unequal distribution. In his 1991 budget speech, Finance Minister Manmohan Singh made an emphatic declaration: "We cannot deforest our way to prosperity, and we cannot pollute our way to prosperity." These were prophetic words. Three decades later, forests nearly two-thirds the size of Haryana have been lost to encroachments (15,000 sq km) and 23,716 industrial projects (14,000 sq km), according to government data. Artificial forests cannot compensate the loss of biodiversity, as the government recently acknowledged. The increase in air and water pollution is mainly from iron, steel, cement, coal, petroleum, fertilisers, synthetic resins, plastic, artificial fibres and chemical industries — all which benefitted from the reforms. Trade liberalisation in India systematically removed trade barriers and restrictions on foreign direct investments (FDI). As developed countries started cleaning up their environmental Act, not surprisingly most of the post-1991 FDI investments to India were higher in dirty technologies and polluting industries. According to State of Environment Report, 2021, by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), of 88 major industrial clusters in India, 35 showed overall environmental degradation, 33 pointed to worsening air quality, 45 had more polluted water, and in 17 land pollution became worse. The major greenhouse gases (GHG) added to the environment as a result of increased industrial activities include carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrogen oxide (NOx), nitrous monoxide (N2O) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). In a report published by Climate Watch (2018), India ranked among the world's top-five contributors to GHG. historical-GHG-emissions India’s automobile industry boomed after economic liberalisation, with a host of collaborations between Indian companies and leading car manufacturers worldwide. Along with this boom there has been an increase in the levels of air pollution. Twenty-one of the world’s 30 cities with the worst air pollution are in India. Air pollution in India has caused losses of up to Rs 7 lakh-crore ($95 billion) annually, according to Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In India, environmental statutes, though impressive in range and coverage, are more often observed in breach than practice. Corruption, jurisdictional conflicts and lack of co-ordination among different agencies has resulted in poor enforcement. India was ranked 168th out of 180 countries in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), according to researchers at Yale and Columbia universities. Interestingly, it is the courts, especially the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal that played a pivotal role in addressing the environmental crisis unleashed by economic reforms. The orders and directions of the apex court cover a wide range of areas, whether it be air, water, solid waste or hazardous waste. But none of it is enough to address the greatest threat to India’s economy - climate change. The World Economic Forum’s 2020 report on global risks indicates that biodiversity and climate-related risks are now widely acknowledged to be the risks with the highest likelihood and impact. India can no longer afford to have an isolated climate policy, or one that places business interests over environmental concerns — as the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2020 proposes. Countries around the world are debating their versions of the green new deal. India must break from carbon-centric Keynesian economics and adapt to the 21st-century vision for carbon neutrality: Investments in its rural communities for forest restoration coupled with agroforestry, sustainable fisheries and horticulture, organic and low-carbon agriculture, green jobs through renewable energy, and energy-efficient green infrastructure. It remains to be seen whether it is the government or the judiciary that acknowledge that in essence, ecology is economy. Apart from the business case, moving to an integrated ecology-economy approach is a matter of survival in an increasingly uncertain future.

THAT SINKING FEELING ALL OVER AGAIN

Goa has just been through a flood that few have experienced before. After the waters inundated the villages, the politicians went on inspection visits. Within minutes there were pictures of Ministers and MLAs wading through even knee-deep waters to get a first-hand idea of the damage that was caused by the floods. It is good to show concern and we do understand that natural disasters cannot be predicted, but there is enough of evidence to indicate that policies and actions of the governments can change the way nature responds. Had the same politicians inspected the areas before the floods and noticed changes in the environment that had been wrought about would the situation have been different? As waters rose in the eastern talukas of Goa last week, that sinking feeling returned with a vengeance for this had been forewarned and yet everybody shut themselves to the warning. Take a short trip back in time to August 2018 when Kerala went under a flood like never before. At that time, ecologist Madhav Gadgil had said, “Certainly all sorts of problems are beginning to surface on the environmental front in the Western Ghats. Goa, of course, does not have the Western Ghats which are so high as in Kerala, but I am sure Goa will also experience all sorts of problems.” Herald had reported Gadgil’s warning which was then picked up by the media across the country. It was discussed in media and environmental circles, but it did not draw even a murmur from the political class. There was neither an agreement nor a refutation. Gadgil’s early forecast was ignored, but the raging waters that swept eastern Goa on July 23 are evidence of what was predicted and a precursor of what can still occur at a later date. The warnings were dismissed by a silence from the decision makers, but nature asserted that it cannot be tampered with and stormed through villages displaying its fury as Goa could only look on and let the tempest subside. Gadgil was chairperson of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, whose report was criticised for being too environment-friendly and anti-development. A member of that panel, Dr Ligia Noronha, is today the United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Head of the UN Environment Programme. If ever there was an urgency to extract the report of that panel from the depths of the government filing system where it has been consigned too, it is now. The Kerala floods of three years ago did not sound a warning loud enough for Goa to take measures. Will the floods of two days ago sound that alarm? Goa does not need to suffer the way Kerala did. Just last month, the environmental magazine Down To Earth had analysed data for the month of June from 2010 to 2021 from various meteorological departments and found that India had received a record amount of rainfall in June 2021, excluding the 2013 rainfall. “This worked as a catalyst for the flood-like conditions in various parts of the country,” the magazine had reported warning that Goa and Gujarat were already experiencing flood-like situations. So, in essence, Goa had been forewarned about what could happen, yet did little to protect itself from what might have occurred. That it happened is indicative of just how lightly Goa takes the warnings of experts in the fields of environment. The admission by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant is that this is the most grim situation faced by the State since 1982. It has been a long 39 years since that flood and in the intervening period there have been cyclones, landslides and rising water levels, but little compares to what was just experienced. If measures are not taken soon, the experience in the future could only get worse.

India's Climate Crisis: Is The Disaster Really 'Natural'?

Nearly 150 people have died and 875 villages in Maharashtra affected after record breaking rain in Maharashtra and the Konkan region. Heavy rain in short spells is just the latest example showing that India is on the frontline of climate change. Experts analyse these patterns and talk about whether India's climate crisis is really a 'natural' disaster.

Africa scores a digital data first

Africa has become the first continent in the world to complete the collection of accurate, comprehensive and harmonised digital land use and land use change data under the Africa Open DEAL initiative. The data collection and analysis initiative is led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC). “Africa Open DEAL initiative has made Africa the first continent to complete the collection of accurate, comprehensive and harmonised digital land use and land use change data,” FAO and the AUC said at virtual launch of the initiative July 13, 2021. This open data initiative that covered the period between 2018 and 2020, disclosed more forests and arable lands than were previously detected. There are around seven billion trees outside forests in Africa, the continent-wide survey revealed. It also disclosed more arable lands in Africa than before. Collect Earth, a free and open source software developed by FAO, was used to collect data through Google Earth. It is part of the set of tools called Open Foris and was developed in 2017 in collaboration with Google Earth, Bing Maps and Google Earth Engine. The survey covered 100 parameters on each sampling point of about 0.5 hectares and included tree counts, farmlands, wildfires and existing infrastructure. The data was analysed to highlight land use change over the past 20 years and the potential for restoration at the national level for every country in the African continent. “This initiative showed that science and innovation could provide real solutions and that collaboration and pooling experience led to the best results,” Mr Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General, said in his statement. The initiative also revealed that 350 million hectares of cropland are cultivated in Africa. This is an increase by 25 percent over the crop land in the continent. In 2018, 279 million hectares of crop land was cultivated in the continent, FAO estimates show.Mr Abebe Haile-Gabriel, FAO’s assistant director-general and regional representative for Africa, said in his statement that the information received from the Africa Open Deal could help in the fight against hunger in the continent. – Down to Earth

Dabur Launches ‘Dabur Honey Tasties,’ Enters Spreads and Syrups Segment

The FMCG giant of India Dabur has announced its entry into the syrups and spreads segment by launching ‘Dabur Honey Tasties.’ This new product is launched in two flavors – Strawberry and Chocolate. Both the products are priced at Rs. 120 each for 200 grams pack. The product is available in colourful squeezy packs in select stores and e-commerce platforms as of now. According to the company, this honey-infused product has no added sugar and is healthier version of the classic strawberry syrups and sugary chocolates available in the market. The Tasties are an extension of Dabur’s popular healthcare brand Dabur Honey. Brushing off the honey controversy Last year, Dabur and other popular brands had come under the scanner when their honey failed the purity test. Their honey was found to be adulterated, as per reports by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) However, the company has denied such claims. Instead, undeterred, it has endeavored to release more products under its Dabur Honey brand. This includes “organic” honey earlier this year. Now, with the launch of spreads and syrups, it has ventured into a promising sector. At present, Ferrero and Hershey’s rule the roost in spreads and syrups in India. Statement of the marketing head of Dabur Marketing head for health supplements of the company Prashant Agarwal said: “Dabur honey has been trusted by generations as their preferred health and food supplement. We are now offering its nutrition to kids with our new range of flavored honey, which is the perfect combination of taste and health. Millenial moms are increasingly looking for products that offer great taste and are also healthy for their little ones. They are also finding ways of giving goodness of honey to their kids. Dabur Honey Tasties, a one-of-its-kind innovation in the honey category, provides a tasty treat that kids will love.”

The human-animal conflict on the rise

There’s an urgent need to stop designating animals as ‘vermin’ as it takes the protective shield of the wildlife Act away from animals A practice that continues despite strong and reasoned opposition is that of proclaiming species of wild animals as “vermin” and thus putting them out of the ambit of the protective umbrella of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the principal instrument for protecting wild animals in India. The wild boar and nilgai have been proclaimed as “vermin” in Uttarakhand, the nilgai and boar in some districts of Bihar, and the rhesus macaque in parts of Himachal Pradesh. The Act does not define the term “vermin” in terms of what it connotes. It just states in Section 62: “The Central Government may by notification declare any wild animal other than those specified in Schedule I and Part II of Schedule II to be vermin for any area and for such period as may be specified therein and so long as such notification is in force, such wild animal shall be deemed to have been included in Schedule V.” Animals included in Schedule V can be freely hunted. The Central Government declares an animal as vermin following requests from State Governments and the ground which has been invariably cited is that it causes damage to crops and poses a danger to human life. There have no doubt been cases in which the Centre has withheld permission. The fundamental question, however, is whether there should at all be a provision for designating an animal as “vermin”. There are several reasons for asking this. For one thing, an article by Anupam Chakravartty, Rajeshwari Ganesan and Rajit Sengupta, published under the heading ‘Enemies of the state?’ in the DownToEarth on June 15, 2016, cites animal rights groups as saying that the drive for killing then underway was based on popular perception rather than data. The country had no data both on the populations of animals proposed to be killed and the extent of crop damage they were supposed to be causing. The article stated that, in fact, Uttarakhand’s proposal on the basis of which the Centre permitted the killing of wild boars, clearly said, “There is no scientific survey or census of the wild boar population that has been carried out. However, since the crop damage caused by wild boar is increasing, the wild boar is estimated to be overpopulated.” Further, experience shows that once killing is permitted, villagers or designated hunters have frequently not followed the methods prescribed. An example is the case in Kerala where a pregnant cow elephant died following several days of intense agony after she had bitten on a pineapple filled with explosives. Enquiries revealed that the pineapple was intended to kill a wild boar which, as a species, had been declared “vermin”. Also, such a barbaric way of killing was not permitted even in the case of wild boars. State Governments have doubtless laid down restrictions on the methods and guidelines governing killings — such as only rifles and pistols to be used and no killing of injured animals running away to forests, and hunting only after receiving permission from the forest department concerned and the village pradhan. But who is to ensure compliance? The fact is, methods that are not permitted are often used. These include laying out live wires for animals to be electrocuted, trapping them for murder and poisoning them. There is no guarantee that animals other than those declared as “vermin” would not come into contact with such wires or consume the poison. The argument that State forest department personnel should watch out for the transgressors and deal harshly with them hardly holds water. It would take a very large number of people and vehicles for doing that. Given that most forest departments have to make do with numerically inadequate staff, deployment on such an errand would leave them with very few people to carry out essential functions like curbing poaching and preventing illegal felling of trees. The result may be a serious diminution of protected species like elephants (for tusks), rhinos (for their horns) and tigers for their body parts which are sought for the manufacture of so-called aphrodisiacs. Apart from the fact that declaring an entire species of wildlife as vermin is contrary to the spirit and content of Article 51 A (g) of the Constitution which enjoins upon both the Government and all citizens to show compassion to all living creatures, animals can hardly be blamed for damaging standing crops and attacking people. The loss of the vegetation they feed on following the destruction of their habitats through encroachment by expanding human settlements, roads and industries, as well as droughts and forest fires, has driven them to agricultural fields for food. Humans do not realise that their own predatory exploitation of nature is increasing areas of human-animal conflict and making non-human species extinct at the rate of 3,000 a year. In this process, they are also destroying the environment and the conditions that have made human life possible. They need to realise that they are not the lords of the universe and must live in harmony with the world around them, including plants and animals. The Greek sophist Protagoras’ famous aphorism “Man is the measure of all things” needs to be amended to read, “Humans are the preservers and protectors of all things.” (The author is Consulting Editor, The Pioneer. The views expressed are personal.)

India, China most vulnerable to climate crisis, pollution

New Delhi: India and China are among the five countries most vulnerable to climate change and air pollution, a first- of-its-kind research assessing the combined risks of the two factors said on Thursday New Delhi: India and China are among the five countries most vulnerable to climate change and air pollution, a first- of-its-kind research assessing the combined risks of the two factors said on Thursday. The world’s two fastest developing economies have witnessed a spurt in particulate matter induced air pollution levels in the past two decades and a simultaneous increase in frequency of extreme weather events such as extreme rainfall, frequent cyclones and heat waves . On Wednesday, extreme rainfall over the week had flooded many parts of Henan province in central China, leaving 33 persons dead. Several other regions of China have faced flooding this week even as north America is witnessing extreme heat wave. “Deaths resulting from toxic pollution are highest where the distribution of toxic pollution is greatest and, critically, also where the impacts of climate change pose the greatest risk,” the study, titled Global Distribution and Coincidence of Pollution, Climate Impacts, and Health Risk in the Anthropocene, said, in a specific reference to India and China. For at least 30 years, the scientists on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have assessed the impact of human induced climate change even as bodies such as the World Health Organisation have focused on the health impact of rising air pollution globally. Scientists at University of Notre Dame found a “strong and statistically significant” link between the two hazards and said the countries which are at most risk from climate change are also the countries with highest risk from toxic pollution. A vital difference between climate change and air pollution is that green house gases that causes global warming are considered non-toxic whereas air pollutants such as particular matter or nitrogen dioxide are toxic. “It is not surprising to find that these risks are highly correlated, but this study provides the data and analysis to inform policy, data and analysis that were previously lacking,” Debra Javeline, an associate professor of political science at the university said in a statement. To make the study useful for policymakers, the authors ranked 177 countries on “Target”, a measure that combined a country’s climate impact risk, toxic pollution risk and its potential readiness to mitigate these risks. China is the world’s leading total GHG emitter and India is on track to join it at the top and they are the two top ranked countries in terms of toxic air pollution. Based on these criteria, the study ranked Singapore, Rwanda, China, India, Solomon Islands, Bhutan, Botswana, Georgia, the Republic of Korea and Thailand as the top 10 countries at risk from the two factors combined. “The top one-third of countries at risk of toxic pollution and climate impacts represent more than two-thirds of the world’s population, highlighting the magnitude of the problem and unequal distribution of environmental risk,” researchers wrote in the paper published on peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS One. On India and China, the two largest countries, with a combined population of over 2.5 billion people, the study said they have relatively high Proportion Mortality ranks --- India ranked 5th and China 13th with 23.5% and 17.9% of annual deaths associated with toxic pollution, equaling 2.3 and 1.9 million premature deaths annually, respectively. The study also pointed out that the two countries have come up with national pollution reduction policies to reduce pollution deaths. In case of China, it said, its National Plan on Air Pollution led to 40% reduction in pollution levels. “The improved air quality resulted in significant corresponding reductions in respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease mortality rates,” the study said. he paper also said that by mitigating toxic pollution in large countries with high populations such as China and India, neighbouring countries will also benefit. Anumita Roy Chowdhary of Centre for Science and Environment said the study provides broad parameters linking air pollution and climate change and insights on how tackling both with singular policy instrument can be co-beneficial. “We know that reducing air pollution helps in managing green house gas emissions and vice-versa. The study, however, analyses the capability of 180 countries to deal with twin environmental problems,” she said. Notre Dame University’s postdoctoral research associate Drew (Richard) Marcantonio said the idea of ranking (Target) is to highlight where action can be taken to reduce risks to human health and whether it can be done through incentives or sanctions. “A range of measures can be used to promote risk reduction such as trade incentives, be they negative or positive incentives, or other policy and regulatory enforcement mechanisms.”

Madras High Court Temporarily Closes Backdoor Entry For Environment Law Violators

In the last two decades, government after government has sought to regularise projects in violation of environment laws. So far, at least 11 such attempts have been made via office memorandums, circulars and notifications. The fate of most of them has been fatal. The Supreme Court, high courts and the National Green Tribunal have repeatedly held that concept of post-facto environmental clear The penalty on the project too has been kept the same, i.e. 1% of the project cost. This is irrespective of the damage that the project may have caused. The ministry needs to factor in the gravity of violation while levying penalties. Nivit Yadav, Programme Director, Centre for Science and Environment

“Some children don’t like the taste of honey; this is a way of getting through to them”: Prashant Agarwal, Dabur India

By Aishwarya RameshPublished: 23 Jul 2021, 5:30 AM IST Marketing “Some children don’t like the taste of honey; this is a way of getting through to them”: Prashant Agarwal, Dabur India Share Via: Bread has many accompaniments in India – especially if you happen to nurse a sweet tooth. You could drizzle a splash of strawberry syrup on it, spread a spoonful of Nutella, or opt for a spoon of good, old-fashioned jam. Dabur’s latest product makes an entry into this world and is attempting to portray an age-old Ayurvedic ingredient in a new light. The FMCG giant has introduced a product called Honey Tasties – in strawberry and chocolate variants. With an ad by Havas Worldwide that shows the coming together of two worlds, Dabur has officially arrived. There is movement in this category after the stir in December 2020. Major honey brands such as Dabur, Patanjali, and Emami (Zandu Pure Honey) failed a purity test conducted by a German laboratory according to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation. Out of the 13 honey brands that were tested, Marico’s Saffola honey was the only big brand to pass all the tests. To drive the point home about the product, an ad illustrates that the product can be added to milk, spread on bread, drizzled on pancakes/waffles, and used to make desserts. It can also be used as a topping in beverages like cold chocolate and cold coffee, besides ice cream.

Climate Change Will Make Lightnings More Frequent, Deadlier Over India

Chandigarh: Lightning strikes killed at least 74 people across Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on July 11, 2021. Of these, 41 were reported from Uttar Pradesh. Allahabad topped the charts among districts with a toll of 16, while 11 tourists lost their lives when lightning struck them at Amer Fort near Jaipur. According to a report by the National Crime Records Bureau, India reports 2,500 deaths every year that are due to lightning and thunderstorm-related events. According to the second annual report of the Lightning Resilient India Campaign, some 18.5 million lightning strike were recorded over the country from April 2020 to March 2021 – an increase of 34% from the period of April 2019 to March 2020. A few states in particular reported a very high increase in the number of strikes: Bihar 168%, Haryana 164%, Puducherry 117%, Himachal Pradesh 105% and West Bengal 100%. The 18.5 million strikes killed 1,697 people. Of late, thunderstorm with lightning has been the most lethal natural disaster in India, killing around 2,000 people every year. A study published in 2015 estimated that between 1979 and 2011, strikes killed 0.25 persons per million population per year in the country. “This is astonishingly low considering most of these deaths are in the rural areas, with low levels of literacy and few buildings with lightning protection,” V. Sasi Kumar, a former scientist at the Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, wrote for The Wire Science last year. One possible explanation, he continued, “is the low level of reporting, especially from rural areas. The actual fatality rate could possibly be higher in many other parts of India, too, with a good fraction of deaths going unreported.” In 2019, the National National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) published a report: it stated that between 1967 and 2012, lightning strikes accounted for 39% of deaths due to natural disasters in India. And in 2013, 2014 and 2015, lightning killed 2,833, 2,582 and 2,641 people, respectively. Tall objects such as trees and skyscrapers are the most common targets for lightning, as are mountains: their tops are closer to the base of storm clouds. “Remember, the atmosphere is a good electrical insulator,” G.P. Sharma, a meteorologist with Skymet Weather, told The Wire Science. “The less insulation the lightning has to burn through, the easier it is for it to strike.” But height alone doesn’t determine the lightning targets. The bigger determinant is “where the charges accumulate,” according to Sharma. “Lightning can strike the ground in an open field even if the tree line is close by.” Atmospheric conditions are more conducive to the formation of severe thunderstorms during the pre-monsoon season, with some pockets of weather – with fast winds and heavy rain – rendering storms more ferocious. “Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, and the Indo-Gangetic plains of north India including Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and hilly areas in the north and the northeast, are vulnerable to fatal lightning strikes,” Sharma said. Natural hazards have been wreaking more and more damage around India, and climate change is expected to keep this climbing trend growing. However, scientists also expect thunderstorm and lightning will also become more frequent and more deadly. This is because as Earth’s surface warms, the air above it also warms, becoming able to absorb more moisture, which in turn has been correlated with more lightning. In 2015, scientists from New York and California reported that if the average global temperature increases by 1º C, the frequency of lightning strikes over the planet is likely to increase by 12%. In March this year, another group of researchers reported that the Arctic hosted around 35,000 strikes in 2010 – but over 240,000 in 2020. (Lightning also accentuates climate change, albeit marginally: strikes produce nitric oxide that then combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to form nitrogen dioxide, and these nitrogen oxides are important ‘indirect’ greenhouse gases.) The monsoons In 2021, the southwest monsoon was slow to move into northwest India, allowing the land in these parts to heat up for longer, and more. “We see the development of more thunderclouds during the pre-monsoon season, which possess great energy,” Mahesh Palawat, Sharma’s colleague at Skymet, said. “There is also a lot of instability in the atmosphere, on account of change of winds and high temperatures.” Sharma added that the time to look out for strikes is when the “air mass” undergoes certain changes. “Similar to what we witnessed in the last few days – the entire northwestern plains were going through a changeover, from pre-monsoon season to monsoon,” he explained. “Due to this, the atmosphere was unstable, making the region prone to lightning events.” He said Rajasthan remained susceptible to strikes over the last week (of July 19) as well. But during the monsoon season itself, Palawat continued, “the atmosphere is quite stable, temperatures drop and convection is lower” – so there are fewer strikes accompanying the rains. “However, it is quite evident that climate change has resulted in increased lightning incidence.” Apart from being dangerous to people working in the outdoors, lightning strikes can also prove deadly by triggering forest fires. “Scientists from the Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Srinagar and IIT Kanpur have studied the concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in different weather conditions in the central Himalayan region, and found a five-time higher concentration of CCN in the atmosphere during forest fires as during rains,” Kiran Pandey, programme director of the Centre for Science and Environment’s resources unit, said. “In May 2021, researchers in Australia linked excess CCN to the increased number of lightning strikes during the 2019-2020 Australia forest fires.” Even more recently, the devastating Oregon wildlire raging in the US this month was found to have been set off by a lightning strike. Another study by scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, Benagluru, and the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Tirupati, and under review with the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, warns that the frequency and intensity of lightning strikes in India are expected to rise by 10-25% and 15-50%, respectively, over the next eight decades. Prevention over cure The study of lightning strikes and our ability to predict their evolution over many years highlights, on the flip side, the fact that India’s governments haven’t done well as institutions to reduce the risk of death by lightning. For starters, there are no national guidelines for mitigating the impact of thunderstorms and lightning strikes to date. This said, the rising number of fatalities prompted the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to begin issuing lightning forecasts from April 1, 2019. The Lightning India Resilient Campaign, a joint initiative of several bodies including the Climate Resilient Observing-Systems Promotion Council, the NDMA, the IMD and the Union Earth sciences ministry, also aims to reduce the number of deaths due to lightning to less than 1,200 a year by 2022. The IMD has also issued safety guidelines to follow in the event of an impending lightning storm (reproduced with edits for brevity): Postpone all outdoor activities Go indoors if, after seeing lightning, you can’t count to 30 before hearing thunder Stay indoors for 30 minutes after hearing the last clap of thunder If you are out in the open, DO NOT take shelter under a tree Get out of the water if you’re in water – including getting all small boats out as well – as well wet agricultural fields If you can, get inside a pukka structure or a hard-top automobile (not convertibles or open truck) and close the doors and windows If you can’t access protective shelter, get into the lightning crouch: squat or sit in a tight ball, arms wrapped around your legs; keep your feet touching together, your head lowered, your ears covered and your eyes closed – to make yourself as small a target as possible Avoid contact with electrical equipment, landline telephones, and unplug any electronic devices Don’t touch metallic plumbing, including metal pipes

Dabur expands honey range to spreads and syrups

Dabur Honey Tasties has been launched in two flavours—Chocolate and Strawberry, priced at ₹120 for a 200 gm pack NEW DELHI: Fast moving consumer goods company Dabur India Ltd, on Thursday announced its entry into the syrups and spreads category with the launch of flavoured honey. Dabur Honey Tasties has been launched in two flavours—Chocolate and Strawberry – priced at ₹120 for a 200 gm pack. The product will be retailed in select stores and on e-commerce platforms. Late last year, the company’s honey brand along with several other popular honey brands sold in the market were found to be adulterated with sugar syrup according to a report released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Dabur has since denied claims. It has instead moved to launch more products under its Dabur Honey brand including 'organic' honey earlier this year. The new launch marks its entry into the spreads space. Hershey’s and Ferrero sell spreads and syrups in India. “Millennial moms are increasingly looking for products that offer great taste while being healthy for their little ones. They are also finding ways of giving the goodness of honey to their kids. Dabur Honey Tasties, a one-of-its-kind innovation in the honey category, provides a tasty treat that kids will love," Prashant Agarwal, marketing head for health supplements at the company said in a statement. The product can be added into milk, spread on bread as well as pancakes and waffles and used to make desserts. Dabur India sells products across foods, beverages, immunity boosters, personal care and Ayurvedic supplements. Its brands include Dabur Chyawanprash, Dabur Honey, Dabur Honitus, Vatika, Dabur Red Paste and Real juices.